30 THE ROSE IN THE MIDDLE AGES. 



Ely, to Christopher Hatton, for twenty-one years, the tenant 

 covenants to pay, on midsummer-day, a red rose for the gate- 

 house and garden, and for the ground (fourteen acres) ten loads 

 of hay and 10 per annum ; the Bishop reserving to himself 

 and successors free access through the gate-house, for walking in 

 the gardens and gathering twenty bushels of roses yearly. In 

 1 597, we find Gerard speaking of the Damask rose of Damascus 

 and the Cinnamon rose as common in English. gardens. Hak- 

 luyt says that the rose of Damascus was brought to England by 

 De Linaker, physician to Henry IX. ; and his successor, Sir 

 Richard Weston, who wrote in 1645, says, " We have red roses 

 from France." In the reign of James I., the keeper of the robes 

 and jewels at Whitehall, among a variety of other offices, had 

 separate salaries allowed him, " for fire to air the hot-houses, 40s. 

 by the year ;" and, " for digging and setting of roses in the 

 spring gardens, 40s. by the year." 



It would seem, by these incidents, that previous to the seven- 

 teenth century, roses were far from being abundant, and indeed 

 were so rare, that a bottle of distilled water was a fit present for 

 Royalty, and a few roses an amply sufficient rent for house and 

 land. 



In the times of chivalry, the Rose was often an emblem that 

 knights were fond of placing in their helmet or shield, implying 

 that sweetness should always be the companion of courage, and 

 that beauty was the only prize worthy of valor. It was not, 

 however, always taken for such emblems, nor did it always 

 bring to mind pleasant and agreeable images, but was often the 

 signal for bloodshed in a desolating civil war which raged in 

 England for more than thirty years. 



The rival factions of the White and the Red Rose arose in 

 1452, during the reign of Henry VI., between the houses of Lan- 

 caster and of York. The Duke of York, a descendant of 

 Edward III., claimed that his house possessed a nearer title to 

 the crown than the reigning branch. He adopted a white rose 

 on his shield, for his device, and the reigning monarch, Henry 

 VI., of the house of Lancaster, carried the red rose. After sev- 



